You Spin Me Right Round
by ImpossiblyIzzy
Summary: The squad's annual weekend trip takes an unexpected turn when Four Drink Amy starts a game of 'spin the bottle'. Jake/Charles, based on a tumblr prompt


'Jeez, Amy, what's in this bag?'

'It's, like, fifty percent alcohol,' said Amy. 'And I can carry my own bag.'

'Well _excuse_ me for trying to be gallant,' said Jake, but was secretly glad when Amy wrestled the duffle bag off him and slung it over her own shoulder.

One weekend every year they took a trip: no work, no distractions, no bosses. Except Terry. And, since the beach house trip, Holt. This year they were staying in a fancy hotel – or at least fancier than Jake would normally be able to afford. Apparently the owner was one of Gina's ex-fiances, and she had somehow wrangled them a group discount.

'You know I heard that the restaurant here does an _excellent_ seafood linguine,' said Charles as they walked up the driveway of the hotel.

'Oh yeah?' said Jake. A few years ago he would have tried to catch up to the rest of the group, but now he was happy to hang behind and listen to Charles talk about food. There was something incredibly endearing about Charles' passion for it.

The group checked in and went up to their rooms – Jake had one that interconnected with Amy's.

'This is awesome,' he said, throwing himself across the bed.

'How old are you, man?' Amy said from the doorway.

Jake sat up. 'Uh, old enough to get my _partay_ on. You're gonna want to get that bag of booze.'

'We haven't even had dinner yet,' she said. 'But also, I like your thinking.'

A knock came at the door to Amy's room. 'Guys?' It was Rosa's voice. 'We're going for dinner.'

'I guess drinks will have to wait,' said Amy with a grin, and the two of them stepped out into the corridor.

'Hey,' said Charles. His face glowed with a smile, even though they'd been talking only ten minutes ago.

After so many years of friendship, Jake was very familiar with Charles' smiles. He gave them out freely: when he heard the stupid pop songs that he liked, or when he was talking about food, or when someone referred to him as their friend. But sometimes it seemed like he had a special smile that he reserved just for Jake, and it was strangely addictive.

.x.

This was, without a doubt, the fanciest vacation Jake had been on.

Firstly, there was the wine – _real_ wine, not 'wine drink'. Secondly, there was the food, which Charles couldn't stop talking about. He was still extoling the virtues of truffle oil on french fries as they returned to their rooms, and honestly, Jake had to agree with him.

'They were amazing,' said Jake. 'Are you converting me? Am I going to start wasting even more money on french fries?'

'When we get back,' said Charles. 'I'll take you to the place with the best french fries in the city.'

'I'd like that,' said Jake.

Charles let out a weird laugh that Jake would have interpreted as nervous if he hadn't known better, and looked away.

The group descended on the suite that Gina and Rosa were sharing, because it had a living room area, and Amy produced several bottle of vodka. So they drank, and they talked, and then Three Drink Amy challenged Jake to a dance contest, which was a challenge he obviously couldn't back down from.

'Let's do shots!' said Amy.

'Sure,' Jake laughed, still out of breath from dancing. He was a little tipsy, but was significantly behind Amy in terms of drunkenness and didn't mind the idea of catching up a bit.

'Who else wants one? Gina? Rosa?' Amy poured vodka into shot glasses, slopping it over the counter. Jake downed his shot, coughing in a way that he hoped was manly.

Amy's fourth drink sent the evening in an unexpected direction.

'Ooh, we should play 'spin the bottle'!'

'You wanna play 'spin the bottle'?' said Rosa, a derisive note in her voice. 'What are we, eight?'

'You played it when you were _eight_?' said Jake, torn between horrified and impressed.

'My first kiss was in a game of 'spin the bottle',' said Charles, wistfully.

'Ooh, I'm great at 'spin the bottle',' said Gina. 'Let's do this, bitches.'

As they refilled their drinks and gathered into a circle on the floor, Jake felt like he had somehow slipped back twenty years what with the shots and the drinking games.

'I am not participating in this game,' said Holt. 'It would be incredibly inappropriate as your boss, not to mention… unfaithful.'

'So you're just gonna watch us like a perv?' said Gina.

Holt held up his hands in a defensive gesture. 'I am merely present for the camaraderie.'

Amy spun an empty beer bottle in the middle of the circle and, when it landed pointing at her, spun it again. Jake felt a flutter of nerves, realising for the first time that there was a high probability that he was about to end up kissing on of his co-workers. And he was _not_ drunk enough for that.

Thankfully, the bottle landed facing Rosa.

'Nice,' said Amy, winking at Rosa.

'Fine,' she said. 'Get over here, Santiago.'

Amy crawled over to where she was sitting and sloppily pressed her lips to Rosa's. Gina wolf-whistled.

'Thanks, sexy,' said Amy. Rosa rolled her eyes and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, and Amy grinned triumphantly to her side of the circle.

Next, Gina span the bottle and it landed on Terry.

'I don't think I should be playing either,' he said. 'Terry is uncomfortable.'

'Guess I'll kiss Rosa then,' said Gina.

'That doesn't make sense!' Amy protested. 'The next person 'round the circle is Jake! Or you should spin again.'

But Gina was already moving to kiss Rosa. And this was different from when it had been Amy, somehow. Less hasty, and more like a tender, private thing when Rosa took Gina by the back of the head and brought their lips together.

Jake looked away, taking a gulp of his drink.

'Right, Jake's turn!' said Gina, gleefully.

'Coolcoolcool,' said Jake, taking another swig of his drink.

It was stupid to be nervous, really. It was just kissing – Jake had kissed loads of people. And it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd done with his co-workers. But his heart was still racing as he leant forward to grab the bottle.

He watched it as it spun, taking a painfully long time to slow to a stop. And, when it did, it was pointing at Amy.

When he looked up, everyone was watching him with varying degrees of anticipation. Gina looked highly entertained, Rosa curious, Holt bemused. Amy looked the same as she had when the bottle had first landed on Rosa, the same as she always did after four drinks: bold and vaguely horny.

The only person not looking at him was Charles, who was staring studiously at his drink. Which was super weird – back when they had first met Amy, Charles had been convinced that she and Jake would end up together. Jake would have expected him to be positively gleeful over this situation.

'Get on with it,' said Rosa, sounding bored.

Jake tore his gaze away from Charles – he would worry about him after this stupid game was over. He crawled over to Amy, who was grinning at him.

'Uh,' he said. 'So do we just…?'

And Amy took his face in her hands and kissed him. It was warm and wet, her mouth open too wide and her tongue pressed against his upper lip. It was incredibly unerotic – somehow more so than the kisses he'd had playing 'spin the bottle' as a teenager.

When Amy let his face go, Jake moved back to his own space in the circle. Everyone looked slightly deflated.

Rosa seized the bottle and span it, landing first on Holt and then on Gina. They kissed again, and Jake didn't watch but he could tell it was going on for longer than anyone else's kissing. And then Rosa nonchalantly returned to her seat, and said, 'Your go, Charles.'

'What? Oh, right.' Charles still looked distracted, avoiding eye contact with everyone and almost knocking over his drink as he made to grab the bottle. Maybe he was as nervous as Jake had been.

Charles' first attempt at spinning the bottle sent it flying off across the floor. The second landed on Terry. When he spun it for a third time, it stopped when it was pointing directly at Jake.

Jake licked his lips, suddenly aware of how dry they were. Everyone was looking at them expectantly.

Charles looked up at Jake, and Jake saw the flash of panic in his eyes. And then Charles was saying, 'I have to, uh, I have a thing – it's important.' He clambered to his feet and disappeared out of the room, almost tripping in his haste.

'Huh,' said Gina. 'People are really un-horny for Jake today.'

Jake knew, rationally, that he should be relieved. He had avoided kissing another on of his friends, and it looked like the game was over now. He _should_ be relieved – but what he felt instead was like a weight in his stomach.

'What was that about?' said Terry. 'Is he okay?'

'I'm gonna go talk to him,' said Jake, getting to his feet.

By the time he reached the door, he was wondering if this was a mistake. His stomach was churning with nerves – which, again, was weird. All he was doing was checking of his best friend was okay.

'Hey, Charles!' Jake jogged along the corridor to catch up with Charles. 'What happened, man?'

'It's fine,' said Charles. 'You should go back.'

'Seriously,' said Jake. 'What's wrong?'

Charles stopped walking. 'It's nothing.'

'Then why are you acting so weird?' challenged Jake.

Charles wasn't looking at him. He licked his lips nervously, and Jake found himself unable to look away. He'd never noticed before, but Charles had really nice lips.

'Were you worried about making our friendship weird?' said Jake, hesitantly. 'Because we could totes deal with something like-'

'It wasn't that,' said Charles. 'I just… couldn't kiss you.'

And then Jake realised what it was, that sinking feeling in his stomach when Charles had run away. It was _disappointment_. Because, as little as he had expected this, he had wanted Charles to kiss him.

And maybe he still did.

'Why?' said Jake, quietly. It felt like all of the air had been sucked out of this hotel corridor.

'I… it's… oh…' Charles waved his hand vaguely, like he was trying to come up with an excuse. And then, 'Because I love you,' he blurted out.

There was a moment of silence in which his eyes widened with panic, as though he couldn't believe what he had just said. And a part of Jake couldn't believe it either, but mostly he couldn't believe how much _sense_ it made. His heart was pounding against his ribs.

Charles started to stutter out an explanation. 'I mean, I just couldn't kiss you like that, like it didn't- oh gosh, I shouldn't have said any of that. I didn't mean – can we just forget about-'

'I love you too,' Jake interrupted.

Charles stopped talking.

'You're my best friend,' Jake said. 'I can't imagine my life without you. And I didn't realise this before but I _really_ want to kiss you, and also more than that, and that's what romantic-stylez love _is_, right? And also I was kind of disappointed when you didn't kiss me back there but I'm glad that's not how it happened. Oh man, I'm saying a lot of stuff – is that how you feel too? Or do you want me to shut up?'

Charles gazed at Jake, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, and he took Jake by the collar and brought in into a kiss.

The kiss was soft and cautious, until Jake took Charles' face in his hands and brought him closer as he deepened the kiss. Jake couldn't believe he hadn't realised before how badly he wanted this; he and Charles were so close in every other way and being close physically felt so gloriously _right_. Charles' lips were warm against his own, his tongue gently teasing.

And then Charles pulled away again, the words already spilling from his mouth. 'I can't believe I just went Full Boyle on you, and you were fine with it!'

Jake laughed, pulled Charles into another kiss. 'But don't go asking me to marry you just yet, okay?' he murmured.

'I can work with that,' said Charles. Jake took him by the waist, and then they were kissing again, tender and slow. Too slow, actually.

'Wanna go to my room?' said Jake.

Charles beamed at him, and it was one of his just-for-Jake smiles. 'Absolutely.'

.x.

Naturally, everyone was suspicious when Jake and Charles don't show up for breakfast. It wasn't like Charles to pass up food, and it definitely wasn't like Jake to pass up _free_ food.

'What if something happened to them?' said Amy, partially kidding and partially out of genuine concern.

After breakfast, they checked Charles' room and found it empty. The bed hasn't even been slept in. And now everyone was a little concerned, except for Gina, who trailed after them anyway.

'I'm sure they're fine,' said Terry.

'They wouldn't have left without telling us, would they?' said Amy.

Gina laughed. They frowned at her, and she looked up from her phone innocently. 'There's a video of a puppy falling down a slide,' she said.

Ignoring her, they went back to Amy's room and knocked on the door that interconnected with Jake's.

'This is stupid,' said Rosa.

'I agree that this may not be necessary,' said Holt.

When there was no response to the knock, Terry pushed the door open. And this room had _definitely_ been slept in: there were clothes everywhere, and the sheets on the bed were dishevelled. And there, in the middle of it all, were Jake and Charles.

'What's going on? Is there an emergency?' said Charles anxiously, sitting up from where he had been curled against Jake's chest.

Amy could only stare, trying to process what she was seeing.

'Why are you all in my room?' Jake tugged the duvet up over his bare chest, but it wasn't enough to cover the hickeys scattered across his shoulders.

'Hey, Rosa!' said Gina, turning back to Amy's room. 'You owe me twenty dollars.'

'I apologise,' said Holt, and he backed out of the room as well.

'What the hell?' said Terry.

Charles raised his eyebrows suggestively. 'You jealous, Terry?'

'Terry's _confused_,' Terry muttered.

'Hey, here's a crazy idea,' said Jake. 'How about you guys stop staring and let us get dressed?'

'Right,' said Amy, and she and Terry hastily backed out of the room.

'I… regret that I saw that,' Holt was saying, for where he sat in the desk chair. Gina and Rosa were sitting on Amy's bed, and Rosa was rooting through her wallet.

'So Jake and Charles are… what, dating now?' said Amy.

'I totally called it,' said Gina. Rosa handed her a twenty.

'They did sneak off together last night…' Amy remembered. 'And Charles has been obsessed with Jake since forever.'

The door opened, and there were Jake and Charles, dishevelled but fully dressed, thank god.

'What the hell is this about?' said Jake.

'Amy thought you were dead,' said Gina.

'I did not!' Amy protested. 'We were all just concerned when you didn't come down for breakfast.'

'Are you guys _a thing_ now?' said Terry.

'Yep!' said Charles cheerfully. 'Me and Jake are an item.'

For a moment Jake looked like he was embarrassed, like he might be about to make a joke to cover for his awkwardness.

But what he actually said was, 'We sure are.' And he took Charles' hand.

'I can't believe I didn't figure it out,' said Amy.

'You're all _terrible_ detectives,' said Gina. 'I don't know what anyone around here would do without me.'


End file.
